In effect, Getajob.com is an exchange that trades in people, not products-and that's the commodity Mailboxes Etc. needs. Mailboxes Etc. set up an agreement with the exchange under which its franchisees sign up for $250 instead of the normal $300 to check out at least five bona fide potential employees.

Chances are very good that marketplaces will become a crucial sales and marketing tool for companies of all kinds and more creative uses will be found during the coming years. "They have the potential to be just as significant as any route that exists, including call centers," says Wendy Lea, VP of consulting at Siebel Multichannel Services.

By their very existence, the new marketplaces will alter the business equation, she says. "Everything is out in the open. It's transparent now-what it costs, who has it."

Alice Miles, president of Ford ConsumerConnect and a member of the Covisint executive team, says, "Covisint will provide the language for manufacturers and suppliers to talk to one another in the future. With complete confidence and security, buyers and sellers-regardless of their size and position in the supply chain-will soon have a way to communicate with one another in a real-time, virtual way."

At least that's the vision. The question now is what the next stage will bring. The result might be an endless cycle of predatory price-cutting wars, or the online environment may well turn out to be just another place to buy and sell goods. "At the end of the day, these electronic marketplaces represent another medium for transacting business," says Fred Hollahan, VP of business-to-business solutions at SilverStream Software Inc. in Billerica, Mass., which builds and integrates electronic markets.

If EDI is the role model, companies will be forced to change the way they do business, but it will take significant technological expertise and many years to reach a critical mass. "E-business is all about reengineering the business process," says David Altschuler, an analyst with the Aberdeen Group. Getting people to change fundamental business processes takes vast amounts of time and energy. "The real thing that's going on here is that a process that has been historically defined in terms of relationships has been redefined with different technologies and infrastructures-all enabled by the massive infrastructure called the Internet."

The change may mean freedom from the old ways of doing business, and freedom can be a scary thing. "The idea of suppliers being able to commoditize their Rolodexes and move away from the heavy personal approach and more into the wild and woolly commodities-oriented world is very uncomfortable for some companies," Hollahan says. "That's one of the challenges for these exchanges to overcome."

"These processes took years to build the first time. Now people are throwing the deck in the air and testing a whole new bunch of processes," Altschuler says.

Anyone who expects a miraculous, instantaneous transition is mistaken. The vast majority of new ventures will perish miserably. And a few-very few-companies whose leaders understand the complex mix of possibilities, pitfalls, and financial realities will make a great deal of money.